Jaycee Dugard Sues the U.S. Government

Jaycee Dugard is suing the federal government for not properly monitoring Phillip Garrido, the man who abducted her when she was 11.

Jaycee was the woman who was kidnapped in 1991 when she walked to school one day and was taken prisoner by Phillip Garrido, a convicted rapist, and his wife. The couple kept Jaycee a prisoner in their backyard and forced her to give birth to two of Garrido’s sons over the course of 18 years.

When she was kidnapped in 1991, her kidnapper was out of parole for kidnapping and rape charges and all those years she spent captive in Garrido’s backyard, his parole officers never suspected that he was hiding Jaycee back there.

For the first 8 years of her kidnapping, Parole officers from the California Department of Corrections visited the Garrido home over 60 times, even talking to Dugard on at least one occasion but did nothing to help her.

Because the federal government had parole supervision over Garrido, Jaycee is suing the government for an undisclosed amount for not closely monitoring her captor.

Jaycee is donating 100 percent of any money she receives to her nonprofit charity, the JAYC Foundation, which she launched to help families of abduction and other families recovering from trauma.

“Jaycee Dugard is not seeking a specific sum for the damages described in the complaint, but rather will trust the judge to decide the damages after all the evidence is presented,” says Jaycee’s spokesperson Nancy Seltzer.

Jaycee tried to reach a private settlement with the US government twice prior, but was denied both times.

“The federal government had parole supervision responsibility over Mr. Garrido from the day he was released in 1988 and remained responsible on the day she was kidnapped in 1991 through 1999,” the statement said.

It seems like the government and it’s appointed parole officers could have saved Jaycee years earlier if they have been monitoring Garrido more closely. She was in his backyard the entire time.

Sadly and ironically, when Garrido was released from federal parole, he was thanked for his “cooperation.”

Last year, the state of California paid Jaycee $20 million when she sued the state for the same issue she is now suing the government.

Currently, Garrido and his wife are serving life sentences.

To learn more about Jaycee’s story and to support her foundation, she has released a memoir, “A Stolen Life” and a portion of the proceeds benefit her JAYC Foundation.